REPORT: F & T L Stanier have just completed their second 1,250 tonne climate controlled potato store, ready for the 2024 harvest. The store is bang up to date with mobile connectivity for crop condition and climatic status.
Four years ago, F & T L Stanier built their first dedicated bulk potato store with climate management and monitoring. The next step was to build a second store, taking some of the lessons learned from the first build. The first store is fully controlled, with adiabatic cooling and a refrigeration system, which can also add heat if needed.
The Stanier business grows 200 hectares a season for crisping and chipping, which they store from October through to the next summer aiming to be empty just before next harvest, so optimal conditions are essential. Potatoes can lose 10% of their weight through dehydration in good storage, this ramps up in less ideal conditions.
Storing 1,250 tonnes and loosing 10% of the weight is no small number – if someone took 125 tonnes out of the yard, it wouldn’t go unnoticed. If that weight loss figure is reduced to 5% it’s like having 60 tonnes more potatoes in the shed. F&T L Stanier choose to bulk store primarily because ventilation is more consistent, and for their operation it made more sense with regard to labour. Then there is the cost of
boxes, which for a store of this size would cost £125,000, if they were bought new. These would have roughly a ten year life
span.
With the first store built, and having gone through some different weather cycles knowing what to take forward into the second build was easier. The refrigeration system proved quite energy hungry when running. And the second store would be empty by spring, before ambient temperatures started to become a problem, so refrigeration wasn’t going to be part of the build.
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